Google Working On Enabling Searchers To Disable AMP

Update: This is not about webmasters disabling AMP but rather searchers disabling viewing AMP. Sorry for the confusion - this is all about how searchers see AMP stories and giving them an alternative from AMP to view the canonical version.

Original story is below:

All our discussion has been around Google AMP is how to enable it, how to benefit from it and the results - which are sometimes poor. We also did touch on Google's response on how searchers can or cannot disable AMP. But for a while now, publishers have been asking, how do they disable AMP.

There are stories of publishers trying to remove AMP and then Google still tries to show the AMP URLs, leading to 503 and 404 errors when someone clicks through from Google to the site.

So Google is trying to work up a solution for publishers to disable AMP, when they are not happy with the results - which is actually a growing issue for Google.

After months of silence from Google in this massive Google Webmaster Help thread about disabling AMP, which started over 6 months ago, Tomo from Google gave some hints on how this will work.

He basically said, they are trying to enable an canonical set up, like you have with href lang, or mobile sites and so forth, so that Google can pick up on the changes faster. He wrote "the Search team is working on creating a direct path from AMP pages on Google Search to the canonical URL as specified by the publisher (usually the non-AMP original URL)." "Sharing will also use the canonical URL where technically possible," Tomo added.

This would technical allow publishers to disable AMP safely for the purpose of Google search picking up on those changes.

Tomo also addressed how searchers may be able to disable it. He said, "additionally, the top bar scrolls away on Android and the Google Search App for iOS devices and it will soon on iOS Chrome and Safari too. The team is currently hard at work to make this happen."

Here is the whole paragraph of what he said:

Sorry to hear that some of you have had some frustrating issues with AMP, but thanks so much for taking the time to leave such detailed feedback. Please keep it coming!

The Search team is working on creating a direct path from AMP pages on Google Search to the canonical URL as specified by the publisher (usually the non-AMP original URL). Sharing will also use the canonical URL where technically possible.

Additionally, the top bar scrolls away on Android and the Google Search App for iOS devices and it will soon on iOS Chrome and Safari too. The team is currently hard at work to make this happen.

For those of you who have shared additional feedback, thank you, and please rest assured it’s been passed directly to the AMP Project team.

Please keep your feedback coming!

It is rare for Google to tell us what is coming, with the exception of AMP. There is no ETA on any of this but I am glad Google is thinking about this.